From the past few months, I have been actively working on improving my writing skills. From your personal learnings, what are the best ideas, practices and tips for improving writing?
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1. Write Every Day
2. Create an Outline
3. Read What You Want to Write About
4. Choose Simple Words
5. Convey Your Message Easily
6. Avoid Filler Words
7. Follow other top writers in your niche
8. Keep Sentences and Paragraphs Short. Think for mobile device
9. Invest in an Editing Tool
@chandan_shopify Splendid reply, Chandan. I think you gave a holistic approach of how to improve writing. Your answer will surely catch other writers' attention. Keep writing.
@sarah_wright7 Hey Sarah, this is gold! Thanks for sharing, I have bookmarked this page because I might need to keep looking at it periodically to keep reminding myself.
@filipminev@kokiweb Thanks Kaloyan, this looks interesting. I will dig deeper into this.
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@filipminev Under rated comment. Hemingway is excellent. It stops you from using so many adverbs in your copy. It's changed how I write and how I think about writing with all the silly superlatives I use to use. I notice so many websites use "supercharge", this is now my current pet peeve.
@rg97 Read. Read. And read some more. Read anything and everything you can get your hands on. There was a time where I loved reading product labels. Funnily, that experience helped me cook up bottled magic potions for my latest novel. Nothing can substitute what you will learn from reading the works of others.
@rg97@stuti We have something in common - reading product labels. It's indeed fascinating that how you can pick new words or hit on a new inspiration, all by reading the packaging information of a cereal box! Reading is the way to go about improving writing. I wish you all the best for your work on the latest novel.
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@stuti@tanoy27 Haha you guys are really interesting. Such different perspectives, loving it!
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I would add, know your audience. Most of my writing is for HS aged students and teachers. I use Hemingway Editor, to keep my writing direct and clear for this audience. https://www.producthunt.com/post...
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@david_grills I wish they'd update Hemingway. It's the most valuable tool I use.
@david_grills This is a very important point, David. I have been writing for some time now, and I have realized that if a writer totally ignores the target audience, then all the hard work turns out to be futile.
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Hi
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Read the work writers that you admire - study the details of their paragraph structure, their expression, style, sentence structure and so on. Also grab a copy of Elements of Style by Strunk and White.
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@aaron_tran2 Seconded! Every writer should know Strunk’s message:
“Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.“
@florence_walker Agreed, Grammerly is a great tool to learn, evaluate and improve writing in the long run. Since you mentioned Grammerly, I'm curious to know are there any other tools that you use to make your writing better?
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@florence_walker I was quite sceptical about Grammarly at first. It actually really does help, even the free version is super useful for writing content. I did not notice how many mistakes I have in the text until I installed it.
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Hi Tanoy,
I too have been working towards the very same goal like you.
Writing is a very investing quality which takes time to grow. But as we are into it, here are 3️⃣ things that helped me a lott!
1. Read Read Read!📚
Read as much as possible! You might want to focus on a particular genre, which is great but, do make a point to try different genres every once in a while just so that you know how writing styles and tonality changes for different audiences and moods.
2. Maintaining Notes📒
As you read, maintain a small notebook to jot down words, sentences, phrases that you find interesting. Go through your notes on end of the day and before starting your day.
You can have digital notes but I strongly suggest Pen✏️ and Paper🗒.
Our brain remembers better when we actually write those words with our own hands.
Every time you write, it gets etched a little deeper into your memory.
3. WOW (Word of the Week) & POW (Phrase of the Week) 📜-
This one helped me a ton!! 🌟
What I did for myself was that, once I had a good amount of notes ready, I picked 1word and 1phrase for the week and I would use them as much as possible when I talked to anyone, when I wrote emails, or when I was engaging with any social media community, or when I was writing my daily journal, literally EVERY WHERE 🔥.
I would purposely frame my sentences in way that I get to use my WOW and POW.
How this one helped❓
We all know a lot of words but when we actually sit down to write something, we fall short of words 🤔. We can't recollect them when we actually need them 😟.
📌This exercise helps us to REGISTER WORDS IN MEMORY📌
We understand how to use them or how to not use them. When is it accurate to use it, how the audience react when we use it, etc
I believe we grasp better when we apply our learnings.
And this one will definitely help to elevate our writing level. 🎯
Hope this helps you Tanoy.
Do tell me if you find it useful. Good luck and keep writing!👍😁
@juilee_mahimkar This answer is not just insightful, it's a thing of beauty. Juilee, I cannot appreciate enough for taking time out and writing such a detailed answer. Of course, this answer is very very helpful for me. And, I'm sure this will catch every other aspiring writer's attention. Keep writing, keep inspiring.
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@tanoy27 Really glad to know this! 😁
And thank you so much! It's a pleasure sharing and getting insights form creative minds. ✨
Read fiction books! The amount of vocabulary, syntax, narrative construction, and style stuff you pick up from reading novels is really shocking and is a great way to improve how you write.
@theclairbyrd Yes, fiction books are great for picking new words, and learning more about sentence structure. I remember reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini," it has made a lasting impact on me. Do you have a favourite non-fiction book?
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